Here are 8 of the most bizarre cryptocurrencies on the market

Andrew Burton/Getty Images The cryptocurrency market has exploded this year.

Digital currencies, such as bitcoin, are powered by distributed ledger technology and are not controlled by a centralized authority. Cryptocurrencies have been around for almost a decade but the rapid appreciation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies this year has peaked the interest of Wall Street and Main Street alike.

Bitcoin, for instance, recently surpassed $4,800. It's up over 700% since 2016 and ether, the token powering the ethereum blockchain, is up 3,300% during the same time period.

At the same time, the number of so-called altcoins, or alternative cryptocurrencies, has ballooned. Powered in part by the rise of initial coin offerings, a way for companies to raise money by creating their own cryptocurrency, the number of altcoins now stands well above 800 with a combined marketcap of over $170 billion, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

We've come up with a list of the eight most bizarre altcoins from Coinmarketcap's list. Here they are:

1/

Sexcoin

Gene Kim

Sexcoin, according to its website, "is the first industry specific cryptocurrency targeting the Adult Entertainment Industry." People can use it to purchase "adult products."

Price: $.010023

Rank: 380

Volume (last 24 hours): $8,663

Marketcap: $1,245,924 (253 BTC)

Circulation: 124,311,414 SXC

Total Supply: No data

2/

PotCoin

iStock

PotCoin was created to provide merchants and customers a platform on which they can buy and sell marijuana products.

"PotCoins are digital coins you can send via the internet, which allow cannabis enthusiasts to interact, transact, communicate and grow together," according to the coin's website.

Price: $.118722

Rank: 132

Volume (last 24 hours): $676,796

Marketcap: $25,858,434 (5,353 BTC)

Circulation: 217,806,587 POT

Total Supply: No data

3/

PutinCoin

Handout/Getty Images

PutinCoin was created with one main purpose in mind, according to its website, to pay "tribute" to the president and people of Russia.

Price: $.039835

Rank: 226

Volume (last 24 hours): $59,045

Marketcap: $7,990,385 (1,654 BTC)

Circulation: 200,588,064 PUT

Total Supply: 2,000,000,000 PUT

4/

PutinClassic

Alexei Druzhinin (Associated Press)

And then there is PutinClassic. According to its website, PutinClassic is "the first souvenir in cryptocurrency."

"We have created a beautiful coin, it is nice to keep in your wallet, or trading on the exchange," a description of PutinClassic on Bitcointalk.org says.

Dogecoin

Dogecoin was created by Jackson Palmer, a group product manager at Adobe, and Billy Markus, a software engineer at IBM, "without much real thought," according to reporting by Motherboard.

As Palmer told Motherboard's Patrick McGuire, "one night after work, I sat down with a beer, I had too much time on my hands, and I bought Dogecoin.com."

Markus stepped in to help make Dogecoin an actual currency.

The name of the coin is an homage to the popular internet meme known as Doge, which became popular in 2013 and features the face of a dog with comic sans texts in the background. Today, the coin is one of the largest alternative cryptocurrencies on the market.

Price: $.002183

Rank: 35

Volume (last 24 hours): $10,408,300

Marketcap: $242,132,855 (50,151 BTC)

Circulation: 110,894,618,419 DOGE

Total Supply: No data

8/

Useless Ethereum Token

Servers for data storage are seen at Advania's Thor Data Center in Hafnarfjordur, Iceland
Thomson Reuters

"You're going to give some random person on the internet money, and they're going to take it and go buy stuff with it. Probably electronics, to be honest. Maybe even a big-screen television. Seriously, don't buy these tokens."

But people have bought tokens. Soon after it launched, it traded at above $40. Now, it's trading at $0.02. UET has a marketcap of $88,725.